East Asia Summit: Terrorism, refugees and China set to dominate talks

Kuala Lumpur: Terrorism, Chinese expansionism and the refugee crisis engulfing much of the world at present are set to dominate the East Asia Summit which kicked off on Saturday night with a "gala dinner" in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, parts of which have been put into security lock-down to host the leaders.

The 18-nation meeting is the third of five summits in a row being attended by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in just his third month in the job. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the UN Paris climate summit, COP21, will take place from next weekend.

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Terror threat dominates East Asia Summit

In the wake of the Paris (and Bangkok) attacks, counter-terrorism is set to top the agenda this weekend.

The East Asia Summit is the first to have regional security at its core even though the nominally economic summits, the G20 in Turkey, and APEC in the Philippines, became overwhelmed by the tragic killings in Paris a week ago, and the bloody aftermath.

Those events, and Friday's attack in Mali, west Africa, have made authorities especially nervous in managing events with such senior gatherings of world leaders.

Leaders participate in the East Asia Summit family photo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: AP

With the relatively recent inclusion of both the US and Russia, and membership including China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, the EAS brings these big and small powers together on strategic matters.

High on the agenda this year is the ongoing and potentially worsening stand-off between the world's emergent strategic and economic superpower, China, and numerous member states over Beijing's territorial expansion in the South and East China Seas.

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Mr Turnbull was due to meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang​ on Saturday evening - the second bilateral discussion with the Middle Kingdom after a one-on-one with President Xi Jinping​ last week. Mr Turnbull is expected to reiterate his message that China's rise must not only be peaceful, but must be seen by its neighbours to be peaceful.

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In September, such comments had incurred the wrath of Beijing, with a foreign ministry spokesman stating: "We hope that Australia will stay committed to not taking sides on issues concerning disputes over sovereignty."

Also of major interest is the management of refugees, and the burgeoning concern over Islamic State terrorism and that of other extreme Islamist groups, including regional variants of IS and al-Qaeda.

With an asylum-seeker vessel making it almost to Christmas Island on Friday, there are fears the resolve of the Turnbull government, which has stuck by Tony Abbott's policies but toned down the bellicose rhetoric, could be tested by people smugglers.

US President Barack Obama is among the attendees and expects that the meeting will focus heavily on the Chinese territorial claim to the Spratly archipelago in which it has constructed a number of artificial islands.

The US has already thrown sand in the face of Beijing's unilateral expansion, by sending one of its destroyers through the area under the right of navigation principle of international law.

The White House has also made clear via a fact sheet released just days ahead of the meeting, that it expects its strong allies in the region to support such actions - although Mr Obama stopped short of specifically requesting either Tokyo or Canberra to send ships into the Chinese claim.

"We are increasing the maritime security capacity of our allies and partners, to respond to threats in waters off their coasts and to provide maritime security more broadly across the region," the fact sheet stated before listing several ways in which this would be achieved including gifting warships to the Philippines and: "Coordinating with our strong allies Japan and Australia on maritime security assistance to align and synchronise regional security and law enforcement assistance programs for maximum effect".